M7 and BBC Studios ink satellite capacity agreement for BBC Earth HD
Luxembourg/Warsaw, 16 March 2023 – Luxembourg-based M7 Group, owned by CANAL+ Group and one of Europe’s leading pay TV providers, has concluded a multi-year capacity agreement with BBC Studios for the satellite distribution of BBC Earth in CEE (excluding Poland) and Turkey.
Following the agreement, M7 Platform Services provides BBC Studios with a comprehensive full-service satellite contribution solution via THOR 5 at 1 degree West, including multiplexing, encoding, encryption and uplinking, allowing the safe and secure reception of BBC Earth by its third-party customers within the Europe-wide footprint of THOR 5. Via the same feed, BBC Earth continues to be distributed to subscribers of the M7-owned pay-tv platforms DirectOne (Hungary) and Focus Sat (Romania).
Zbigniew Pruski, Commercial Director BBC Studios CEE, said: “For many years, M7 Group is an important content partner for BBC Studios for various European markets. I am excited that our cooperation is now extending into the provision of technical satellite distribution services for BBC Earth in CEE and Turkey. We have great confidence in the professional skills and customer focus of the M7 Platform Services team, and we look forward to our enlarged partnership with M7.”
Bill Wijdeveld, VP Platform Content Services at M7 Group, commented: “M7 and BBC Studios enjoy a long-standing cooperation for the distribution of BBC Studios flagship channels throughout the various M7 markets, thereby greatly enhancing the attractiveness of our content offering. We are very pleased with the opportunity to broaden our partnership with the provision of satellite distribution services, and we look forward to a continued, fruitful cooperation.”
M7 Group is brand of Canal+ Luxembourg S. à r.l., a CANAL+ Group company, one of Europe’s largest operators of satellite and IP-based TV platforms based in Luxembourg. M7 Group uses different brands in different countries: Skylink and freeSAT in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Canal Digitaal in the Netherlands, TV Vlaanderen and TeleSat in Belgium, HD Austria in Austria, Direct One in Hungary and Focus Sat in Romania. All brands offer tailor made packages for clients adapted to the local culture and language in these countries. Today, M7 Group provides more than 3 million subscribers with hundreds of satellite and IP-based radio and television services in digital and HD quality. M7 Platform Services provides broadcasters with end-to-end distribution solutions for DTH, cable and IPTV reception. Furthermore, M7 provides a growing range of premium content platforms and channels: CANAL+ Austria and CANAL+ First in Austria, CANAL+ Sports and CANAL+ Action for the Czech and Slovak markets. www.m7group.eu.
BBC Studios is a commercial subsidiary of the BBC Group with profits (EBITDA) of £226 million on sales of £1.6bn (21/22). Able to take an idea seamlessly from thought to screen and beyond, its activities span content financing, development, production, sales, branded services, and ancillaries across both its own productions, and programmes and formats made by high-quality UK independents, with three-quarters of its revenues from non-BBC customers including Discovery, Apple and Netflix. Around 2,400 hours of award-winning British programmes made by the business are internationally recognised across a broad range of genres and specialisms, with brands like Strictly Come Dancing/Dancing with the Stars, Top Gear, Bluey and Doctor Who. BBC.com, BBC Studios’ global digital news platform, has 139 million unique browser visits each month.